I love botanical gardens, where the trees are helpfully labelled. In Adelaide, this is true even of those outside the grounds… which is how I came to take a few leaves from E Leptophylla.

For lovers of brown, this might be a viable dye plant. I’m still working on loving brown for most applications. I tend to think brown sheep are made for creating brown wool. But I’m blessed with access to coloured sheep fleece, and not everyone is so lucky.

I have to say that it is more of a dye prospect than E Gillii. A friend has this beautiful plant growing in his backyard, so I tried it out some time ago and got smudgy tan marks and no more. It’s best admired for loveliness of leaf and flower in my view. I also tried Chinese elm–no colour at all.

A visit to the botanical gardens, even when I am really outside the gates, is never wasted.